A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream World

It’s been nearly 15 years since my last nightmare. I try not to think about them. I was just a teenager and I don’t know how I survived it the first time round, but somehow I did. I moved away, far, far away and made a new life, new memories, and kept as few friends as possible because it’s just simpler that way. The past years I’ve lead a quiet life, a happy life and nightmare-free. All of that changed last night. This thing which stalks our dreams, finds our fears and uses it to gain power has found a way to get back into our world and now, we’re all in so much more greater danger than before…

My dream began with the clearing of mist and I found myself walking through a park. It seemed like early morning, very early morning in the spring, the sun was just peeking through the horizon and everything was covered in dew from the night. As I walked it occurred to me that I didn’t know where I was going or where I just come from and then something else dawned on me; I wasn’t alone.

I could feel my heartbeat speed up and fear washing over me, silently I trembled and sped up my pace. The sun behind me must have been rising because as I walked I saw my shadow in front of me become longer and longer, far ahead of me, but as it got bigger I realised it was not my shadow and despite my gut instinct not to do it, I turned around and what I saw made me freeze in horror.

There he stood, the man of a thousand nightmares, his eyes fixed on me. With one gesture he raised his right hand and pointed one long steel blade directly at me.

“I’ve been waiting for you” Freddy snarled.

I didn’t wait anymore, turning to run as fast as I could. The air in my lungs disappeared though and my legs weren’t taking me anywhere and before I knew it I felt his steel claw clasping my right shoulder and pulling me backward. I fell to the ground and –

- woke up in my bed clutching my sheets. I could still feel the pounding of my heart. In the darkness I realised I still couldn’t breathe, but then I found that the blanket was over my head and I was too scared to pull them back over. After a while I was feeling sleepy again, my head fell back despite my efforts to stay awake, and I was pulled deep back into sleep –

- right back to the park where I lay on the ground. Freddy stood over me.

“Mmm, the little piggie’s back!”

I jumped to my feet, this time determined that they would the run and with speed like the wind I ran. The batting cages were up ahead but I ran past them, somehow it didn’t seem like a good idea to hide out in them when a monster like Krueger was on my tail. I kept running, still no idea where to run to. Ahead of me were just green fields and though it seemed like sunrise, it should have been getting brighter but I noticed the light fading, the sky became darker and the wind got colder. My bare arms and feet felt the sting of the cold and I could see my breath in quick gasps before my face.

Without turning back this time, I ran and I ran with the winds pushing me backwards all the time, then the ground rose up and threw me down and as I fell back the sky became totally black. I landed on my back, hard against what sounded like a wooden floor which splintered and cracked on my impact. The door slammed shut and I saw where I was. 1428 Elm Street. I groaned as I lay sprawled on the dirty floor.

“Mommmmmmmmmy!!!” a child screamed, breaking the eerie silence and I clambered to get up off the broken floor boards.

Above me in the rooms upstairs I heard little feet running about. Avoiding the broken steps I ran up the staircase, up along the corridor where there were a series of endless doors stretching ahead of me and behind me. A door knob turned on the one closest to my left. I pulled out one of the stair posts and held it like a baseball bat as I stood at the side of the door. It opened slowly and three little boys crept out, they looked up at me with wide eyes about to scream. I put my finger to my lips “Shhhhh”. The tallest boy, he was about 8, held onto the other two boys who were about 5 and 6 I assumed. The smallest one had been crying and was still shaking. I lowered the weapon in my hand and spoke in a hushed and calm voice to them.

“What’re you kids doing in here? This isn’t a good house to play in” I felt like a classroom assistant again suddenly, but no school I had ever worked in reminded me of this place.

The middle boy looked down the corridor behind me and then back to me and said with a stern face “We’re looking for our mommy. The man has her and she can’t get out so we came to get her”

“Are you sure she’s here?”
“It’s always here he brings them she said”
“How many rooms have you checked?”
“We don’t know, they keep changing” said the eldest
“Alight, hold each other’s hands and stay behind me”

I took the eldest boys hand and in one long line we started to try the doors when the door furthest to us swung open. Red mist rose out of the doorway followed a thundering roar of laughter. I looked at the boys, they stared dead ahead and I knew the choice was made; we were going into that room.

As we got closer there was a sickly smell of rotting flesh and burning hair and I wasn’t sure if the boys should go in, but then I couldn’t leave them outside as well. The eldest gripped my hand tighter, squeezing down on it and I knew they were more afraid than I could ever imagine, considering I was terrified beyond my wits too.

We entered the room as the red mist swirled all around us, we couldn’t make out anything else in there, but the boys were quiet as mice and didn’t make a sound. They stayed very close together though and for a moment I thought about them in any other situation and they would be fighting and tearing at each other as brothers normally do. Today though, they were here looking for their mom.

The mist rose and we saw the floor was covered with wet entrails. We were walking right through it. In the corner was a large armchair facing the wall, we got closer and saw the back was fixed with metal bars, spikes, blades and thick wires and there was someone strapped to it. Their mother. Her blond hair was pulled back and her forehead was bleeding, she couldn’t move her face or her hands or feet. Her eyes met mine and I realised it was Alice. The boys began to cry loudly and we saw Freddy was standing in front of her. With one look in her eyes she told them to stay where they were.

“Mommy’s feeling a bit drained today boys; she’s been sharing with me all night long!”

Freddy bent down to Alice’s face and smiled, his rotten, burnt face dripping putrid flesh onto her lap. It sizzled and burnt through her jeans. Alice winced in pain.

“Scream, bitch, scream! I’ve been waiting a long time to hear this song!” Freddy released her from her binds and she let out an ear piercing scream as his acidic waste ate through her flesh. I could see a deep hole in her left leg where her thigh used to be. Alice fell to the ground and what was left of her leg slumped into a corner and fizzled away, then fell through the floor as it burned a hole there too.

The boys tried to rush to her but Freddy pulled them back with an invisible force that threw them up against the wall. Their little feet high above the ground, pinned and helpless as their mother lay in a heap on of burning flesh the floor. I stood there with the stair post in my hand but couldn’t move, I couldn’t think what to do.

Freddy came closer to Alice, she tried to push him away, but she was going into shock now, her body trembled.

“Rot in hell you Fuck!” she sputtered at him and cried out in pain.
“Not before you do!”

Alice looked at her children, pinned to the wall, and then to me, he eyes wild with desperation and horror at what was happening and fighting to stay conscious.

“My children, please don’t let him take my children! Find Kristen, her soul is free, and Nancy, only they can help you, he’ll try to pull the whole world into his nightmare!”

Alice was crying, pushing and trying to drag herself away. He grabbed her hand and held it in his as she fought back, but she knew this time this battle she was losing. The metal claws on his glove began to rust and run down to Alice’s fingertips. Blood began to pour but rose in droplets instead of falling; white bone on her fingers began to show and turned to rust as her flesh fell away like dust. Her right arm now totally gone, wanting to scream but there was nothing there. Just her wide open eyes and gasps as her shoulder, chest and waist fell away and the blood drops rose up in the air and pooled on the ceiling. With nothing to support her right side, the left crumbled with the weight and Alice’s head flopped to the side, she heart was still beating within her rib cage as the rust ate away at it and she was disappearing before my eyes.

Then Freddy stepped between us and faced me.

“Now I have her power. I won’t have to wait for you to fall asleep anymore. I can pull you all into my nightmare, anytime, anyplace!”

With that he walked out of the room laughing like a maniac who had just defeated his longest living opponent. She was gone. There was nothing there apart from a hole in the wooden floor board which went down into the eternity of hell. There was a thud behind me as the boys fell to the floor crying, scrambling to their feet and I felt their little hands clasping mine as we stared over the edge into the darkness beneath us.

And then it rained blood.

I woke gasping for air and covered in sweat. Alice!!!

>>>>
Written by Patrick Samuel
Artwork by Patrick Samuel
A fan-fiction bsed on characters created by Wes Craven.